iPhone won't show up in Music via USB

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Level 1

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iPhone won't show up in Music via USB

I sync music files from my Macbook Air to my iPhone via USB. Normally my iPhone shows up in Music (previously iTunes) on my computer as soon as I plug it in, but now it doesn't show up there and I can't sync my music library.

I've tried restarting both my phone and my laptop.

I've tried multiple USB cables. They both seem to work, because every time I plug the iPhone in, it makes the sound to let me know it's charging. Also, the iPhone shows up as connected in System Information under USB, so my computer definitely knows it's there.

I've tried "Reset Location & Privacy" on my iPhone to see if I can get the dialogue that sometimes pops up asking to trust my computer to come up again, but that didn't work.

I updated my phone (iPhone 7) to the latest, iOS 13.4. I updated my laptop (MacBook Air, Retina, 13 inch, 2018) to the latest, Mac OS Catalina Version 10.15.4, which also updated Music to Version 1.0.4.104.

What else should I try?

iPhone 7, iOS 13

Posted on Mar 30, 2020 4:04 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Teddy_B

Community Specialist

Apr 1, 2020 5:55 PM in response to Melicopter

Hello and welcome to Apple Support Communities Melicopter,

I see that you're having an issue with your iPhone not being recognized when connected to your Mac. I can understand your concern and wanting to have this resolved quickly, and I'd be happy to look into this with you.

You've already done some great troubleshooting steps to try to resolve this issue. Next, let's have you take a look at the article below with some additional steps that can help.

If your computer doesn't recognize your iPhone, iPad, or iPod

If you go through this article and the issue remains, respond back with some more details. Have you been able to sync this iPhone with your Mac before? Were there any changes made to your iPhone prior to this issue?

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Have a great day!

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Answer 2

MoonJ.

Community Specialist

Apr 3, 2020 6:13 AM in response to Melicopter

Hello Melicopter,

Thanks for providing those additional details. Storage space should not affect the computer recognizing your iPhone in general. You can go through some steps to free up storage space. The article below can help with freeing up storage space on your iPhone. However, since you went through the steps provided in the previous article and the issue remains, you'd want to reach out to Apple Support.

How to check the storage on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Get Support

Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.

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Answer 3

Melicopter Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 2, 2020 10:43 PM in response to Teddy_B

I've already done everything in the article. I am usually able to connect my iPhone with my Mac. I can't think of any changes made to my iPhone prior to the issue, except that its storage was getting full. (My goal in connecting my phone to my computer this time around was to sync my music library to my phone again after removing some songs on my computer, so as to free up some space on my phone. I still haven't successfully managed it because the phone won't show up in Music.)

Before this issue came up, I think my phone was showing something like 31 of 32 GB of storage used. (Snapchat was crashing whenever I tried to use face filters, and I didn't have enough storage to update apps that needed updating, so I decided to address the issue by getting rid of some music.) Right now, even though I never did re-sync my Music library to remove some of my songs, it now shows 27.9 of 32 GB used. (Maybe this has something to do with downloaded podcasts being deleted once I've listened to them, or with the weird way in which my iCloud Photos library is constantly downloading full-size versions of pictures from the cloud whenever I want to look at them, and then getting rid of the full-size versions and only keeping the thumbnails locally once I'm done looking at them??)

Anyway, during the troubleshooting process I also updated to iOS 13.4, so maybe that accounts for the storage use discrepancy? But my phone still won't show up in Music on my laptop, even though both phone and computer are now up to date. What to try next?

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iPhone won't show up in Music via USB

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